It starts near the free throw line. A circular gathering of teammates, their shoulders touching, their arms draped over each other’s backs. Rick Jackson, all 6-feet, 9 inches of him, emerges in the middle of the scrum, his mouth moving as his head and shoulders bob in rhythm. The players surrounding him resemble a fluid football huddle.

It’s a scene that repeats itself in arenas across America, this pre-game ritual of injected adrenaline.

Last season, Arinze Onuaku assumed the mantle of middle man; this year, that honor befalls Jackson, the lone senior on the Syracuse basketball team.

“It’s just to get us a little more amped before the game,” Syracuse forward Kris Joseph said. “We do a couple things before the game: James (Southerland) dances in the locker room. We huddle around him. We go out and have a good warmup and then we huddle around Rick. Just gets us a little more amped up for the game to start.”

Jackson said he tailors each pre-game motivational message to fit that day’s opponent. “It’s kind of different,” he said, “depending on who we play.”

He might exhort his teammates to rebound against a particularly ferocious rebounding opponent. He might remind players to stretch to the shooters. He might say something like, “Let’s jump on them early. You play around with them, it’s gonna be a game.”

He is not quite that polite or that plain. He adds a rhetorical flourish here or there, throws in some pointed street language. Sometimes, said Brandon Triche, Jackson just screams.

Last year, Onuaku was aided greatly in that circle by Andy Rautins, who always had something significant to add, SU players said. This season, Jackson mostly speaks, though Scoop Jardine often comments and Mookie Jones occasionally adds a directive.

“And then when we bring it in,” Joseph said, “everyone’s saying stuff. So it’s like a collective effort.”